swastikas as far as the eye can see. Blue, yellow swastikas sprayed on tombstones of the old Jewish cemetery in the Alsace region: Here, in Quatzenheim, near Strasbourg, to nd the Unknown mid-February, more than 80 tombstones business. The incident triggered in the whole of France with indignation and horror, because he seems to be a symbol to stand for a new Flare-up of anti-Semitism in the country.
nearly three-quarters of the number of Jews of enemy incidents in the past year, has increased in France: 541, such as the Ministry of the interior announced recently. And churning out new headlines to shake the French: On the edge of a “yellow West”-Demo of the intellectual Alain Finkielkraut as a “dirty Zionist” insult. Unknown overspray in Paris, the portraits of the politician and Holocaust Survivor Simone Veil. Participants of the “yellow West”-protests in the capital of the Hitler greeting. And then there is the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in the Alsace region.
In the 800-souls village of Quatzenheim, with its pretty half-timbered houses bewilderment prevails also in the week after that. “It’s a shame and it is a pity,” says a 83-Year-old local resident, who walks on a Sunny day through the village. Here, Jews had always lived in peace with Christians. Now only one Jewish family was left. “The dead who lie here, have nothing done, what would justify, to destroy their graves!” Everyone in the village asked themselves: where is the hate?
hate on the Internet
Also, France’s government is looking for answers to this question and to find solutions. The President of Emmanuel Macron, recently announced the measures His government intends to prepare a law of hatred on the Internet combats. Model of a German scheme is. In addition, Macron announced that three extreme-right groups to be disbanded in France.
One of them is the “Bastion of the Social”, a grouping based on the ideas of the “Identitarian movement”. She sounds the Alarm against the alleged “population exchange” and warns of the end of Western culture. An important leg to stand on has the originally from Lyon, the root end of the movement in Alsace.
the Chairman of The group, Valentin Linder, unimpressed by the threat of a ban on his movement. Ideas could not prohibit the government finally says the 24-Year-old. “We just need to change the Flag.” For almost two weeks, supporters of the “Bastion of Social had been occupied by” two old houses in the Alsatian town of Entzheim – in a should be “the French in Distress”, the other should be protected from the alleged threat of demolition. The Flag of the movement – a tower from which lightning bolts shoot forth – until the last from the porch of a house. On Friday evening, the buildings were vacated, according to the Prefecture.
to bring His movement in connection with the growing hostility to Jews, is wrong, says Linder. The group was not anti-Semitic, but “national-revolutionary” and anti-Zionist. Macron is looking for a scapegoat.
the hostility to Jews
experts see but just ultra-right movements as a reason for the rise of hostility toward Jews is growing stronger. Because of the already-established Islamist anti-Semitism, while on the one hand, Frédéric Potier, anti-Semitism officer of the French government, in an Interview with the French news Agency AFP says. Fired have the increase to 2018, but the resurgence of the extreme Right, the am extremely self-conscious. Is affected, meanwhile, not only France, but also about Italy or the USA.
“We’ll be the revival of a traditional anti-Semitism,” says the historian Marc Knobel in conversation with the newspaper “Libération”. The speech was the alleged connection to “Jews and money” – as in the 1930s. For example, there were rumors, because Macron have worked prior to his political career at the Rothschild Bank. The Rothschilds are a Jewish banking family. Polls also demonstrate that more than every fifth Frenchman to a Jewish world conspiracy believes. Particularly, conspiracy theories are widely spread in “yellow West”-followers
Now Quatzenheim is not the first Jewish cemetery was desecrated in France, business and the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in the country is nothing new. According to the historian Knobel Jews hostile incidents increases, however, were in the past decades, mostly in connection with escalations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Then the anger had been omitted on the government of Israel to the Jews in France. The tensions in the Middle East to take – but in 2018, it had been less extreme than in the past, says “liberation.” Nevertheless, there was a sudden increase in enemy of the Jews adhere to a medieval deeds.
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In Quatzenheim have been removed the swastikas, in the meantime, from the grave stones. The town hall of the village invites you for Sunday to a rally at the cemetery, in a stand against the hatred of the Jews is to be set. The perplexity is, however, likely remain. (Violetta Heise, dpa)
